Trailers pulled by powered vehicles may be used to transport a variety of goods or materials, such as cargo, tools, equipment, vehicles, or livestock. Thus, many types of trailers have been designed for different purposes. These may include enclosed cargo trailers, flatbed trailers, boat trailers, vehicle trailers, livestock trailers, or dollies. Other types of trailers may be adapted to provide shelter, such as construction trailers or travel trailers. Trailers are typically attached to a powered vehicle using a hitch, which is used to tow the trailer behind the motorized vehicle from location to location. The trailer may be detached from the vehicle by removing the trailer from the hitch.
Trailers are often targets of theft due to the value of the trailer itself as well as the value of items that may be stored within the trailer. Hitch coupler locks are commonly used to prevent theft of trailers by securely latching a coupler onto a ball on the trailer hitch and locking the coupler into place. A coupler lock system locks a trailer to a vehicle hitch when the trailer is hitched to the vehicle and may also prevent an unhitched trailer from being hitched to a vehicle. However, hitch coupler lock systems generally use an exposed lock, such as a padlock, which may be cut by lock cutters or otherwise compromised in order to facilitate removing a hitched trailer from a vehicle and/or allowing an unhitched trailer to be hitched to a vehicle for the purpose of stealing the trailer. In addition, if the coupler or the latching mechanism of a coupler lock system fails, the locking system may be rendered inoperable. Further, coupler lock systems are used strictly for trailers having a coupler designed to be latched onto a ball hitch and thus cannot be used to prevent theft of a motorized vehicle, such as a car, motorcycle, recreational vehicle (RV), golf cart, electric conveyance vehicle (ECV), or similar types of vehicles.
Some attempts have been made to provide a security system for locking a vehicle wheel hub to prevent theft of the vehicle. For instance, in one system, an actuated locking ring locks and unlocks a wheel hub to an axle, and operation of the locking ring is controlled by a lock to prevent unauthorized unlocking of the wheel hub. One problem with such a system is that it requires a means of mechanically locking the wheel hub to the axle. However, axles installed on existing vehicles generally do not have such a mechanical locking means. Thus, although a wheel hub may be replaced using common tools, installation of such a system would additionally require replacement or mechanical modification of an existing vehicle axle to provide a locking means. Such modification or replacement of an existing axle is difficult, costly, and time consuming. Due to these drawbacks, it is unlikely that many consumers would themselves install such a system on an existing vehicle owned by the consumer. In addition, although manufacturers of vehicles and/or wheel hubs may be better equipped to produce an axle with such a mechanical locking means, it may be advantageous for such manufacturers to produce a secure locking hub system without the necessity of modifying the design of existing axles used in the production of vehicles.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a system for locking a vehicle wheel hub that may be retrofitted to an existing vehicle in order to prevent theft of the vehicle.